Fashion Week's global touch

Britain-based S2 Events will consult on India's biggest business ramp show.

The Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) has had an interesting year. Last year, it had a very public split with Lakme, which has been sponsoring Lakme India Fashion Week since its inception in 2000, and onlookers have been asking themselves ever since how FDCI is going to tackle fashion week in its new avatar this year.

It seems FDCI is responding by taking the bull by the horns. In September of last year, FDCI brought in event management company Percept D'Mark to organise India Fashion Week, as it is now being called, beginning 2006.

Percept replaced IMG, whose contract ended last year, and which has since tied up with Lakme. IMG is a well-established company that organises fashion weeks all across the world, including New York Fashion Week, and its exit must have given FDCI's head, Rathi Vinay Jha, pause for thought.

However, Percept has managed to appoint a consultant from abroad as event director "" Wolter Dammers, designer-producer, S2 Events. S2 Events is a British firm that has been organising London Fashion Week since the early eighties, thus matching the experience and prestige of IMG.

"We were chosen because of our track record," says Dammers. Dammers and his team have already pinpointed several problem areas that they hope to address this year, from shows starting on time to extended facilities for the press and backstage.

"We're going to break down the gap between the shows to keep the momentum going, and make everything much more professional," says Dammers.

"They're going to introduce systems," adds FDCI director general Jha, "and everything will be much better organised. This year, the number of participating designers we have has gone up from 40-odd to 65, and we're also planning a separate event in Mumbai in September, to showcase spring/summer lines."

"The Lakme walkout is not an issue," announces Jha militantly. "It's a forgotten chapter." "IMG wasn't able to bring in a consultant from the outside," says an FDCI insider, "but Percept was able to do so immediately."

These statements are reflective of the general mood of somewhat forced optimism that is running through the FDCI offices in Gurgaon. And although word on the street has been the FDCI-Percept team has been finding it hard to rope in a sponsor, Jha assures us that an association has been made, and that the announcement will be made on the 15th of this month.

However, the search for a sponsor, a legal notice concerning monopolistic practices and other worries have been niggling at FDCI, and their decision to showcase 65 designers could maybe add to this.

While most of the well-established designers seem to have stuck with FDCI, we're sure the management still has some sleepless nights in store "" watch this space for developments.